Hold Me Close, Hold Me Now
by Deathly Betrayal
Summary: Silence had never been so chilling. PhanLumi.


**.:Hold Me Close, Hold Me Now:.**

* * *

It had been around three days after Luminous' death. Everyone had mourned, of course - and they still are. It's a painful shame to see two powerful magicians both brought down by the same monster. It was Phantom's fault, yet again. Luminous had thrown himself in the way of the black magic bolt and took a direct hit. Even though there was a black-and-white idealistic scene for the Equilibrium magician, Luminous just can't let another man die. Phantom may have stolen, but he wasn't as bad as the Black Magician, and as such Luminous had taken it upon himself to save the thief.

Phantom closed his eyes, trying to shove the memories of him and Luminous arguing out of his head. Goddess, he missed the petty little arguments they had so much. It wasn't that hard, seeing as how the memories were hardly there anyways - other than from the start, they had pretty much gotten along fine. Their life together had always been bittersweet - but as with Freud, it was a tragedy.

He remembered Aria, the Empress from three centuries before. He remembered the way her long blond hair twisted in the wind, but never knotting or tangling together. She always had a sort of wild beauty - one that didn't fit an Empress, but did at the same time. He remembered the way she had given him the flowers, and shown him the field of forget-me-nots, telling him to not forget her.

He remembered her death, her skin deathly pale. The glow of health any living being had was gone from her, and he remembered the revenge spiking up in his stomach as he ran across half the land to find Freud's well-hidden study. He had joined them, the group of four. Luminous had glared at him - his heart twisted in pain.

Why was it so painful to think of him? Why was it so painful to think of the surly, bad-tempered magician? Why?

_"Don't worry. She loved you, and she won't want to see you this way."_

His eyes widened. That wasn't in his memory. Freud didn't say it, the cocky magician he was. He was too absorbed into his studies and finding and perfecting the seal used to say that sort of stuff. Luminous, on the other hand...

_"It's okay. It'll be fine."_

Luminous had argued with him a lot, but he always had been a good friend. Even when he hasn't experienced the feeling, he had the good ideas with how to deal with it. He was the one he had pestered for help with when he fell for Freud.

_"Just tell him. He'll understand."_

He had said it with such a smile, Phantom believed him immediately. It was true, of course, and Freud had understood perfectly, although he didn't know where the feelings came from.

And when Freud died, Luminous was the one comforting him. He remembered the silence, and the warm hug the magician had hesitatingly given him. He remembered the soothing words Luminous had said quietly.

Goddess, remembering what he did hurt. It hurt so damned much.

And he could remember his death. Blood streaking across his white robes, his right eye blazing with a dark fire, trying to escape as the last of life bled away from him...

He remembered what Luminous had said in his final seconds. _"I never tried loving you, you petty thief."_

"All this while... you _loved_ me...?" Phantom muttered in disbelief, falling forwards to land on his knees, unable to comprehend it. Only now he could sort out the warm feelings Luminous had given him, and only now did he understand why he felt that way. He understood why Luminous would give him such advice... he thought that he had lost Phantom long ago, didn't he?

And he was still there. Luminous had loved him, didn't he? Luminous had protected him. How long had he been in the shadow?

Phantom remembered after he left and had received the advice about Freud, he heard soft crying from Luminous' room. He had never understood why, but he never questioned the mage.

They had been together for around five years. They had been stuck in the ice for three hundred. Luminous had been awake, conscious of the passing years in that stupid seal. Luminous had been waiting for more than three centuries.

Waiting.

_Waiting._

Watching as the days pass by, and never aging, as the seal had designed it to be. Watching, as his skills dissipated into nothing, the spells he used clearing themselves from his memories.

It's funny how much you forget in three hundred years. It's funny how feelings _remain the same. _Why couldn't they disappear? It must have hurt so damned much when he had his time to think about everything.

It must have been so painful for him to see when Phantom passed by with Freud, or cried when he remembered Aria. It must have been so painful to love another so much and have him not return the feelings.

In a way, Phantom was actually lucky. He had loved people who loved him back. He ignored the one that had been loving him the most.

"L-Luminous...!" The tears started to come full-force, and he sat there as how he did in the vault, when he had came and comforted him. "P-please, come back...! I... love you...! Won't you... come back... and hold me like you did...!? P-please... come back..."

No answer.

Silence had never been so chilling.

* * *

**A/N) I feel sorry for myself now. Why was I the one that had to write this? D:...**

**just**

**no.**


End file.
